Clara Lucille, the second daughter and fifth child of James and Martha MacMillan, was one of the children who so far as this human narrative is concerned, would seem to have completed her rather long life, as an unfinished symphony. Possessing the beauty of her mother, and having advantages which her mother and other members of the family never enjoyed, and while all of her life aspiring for the ibest, she yet failed to find that exact niche which would have made her all that she most desired and all that her deeply religious life and background certainly would have prophesied. Clara never married, a career for which she was best fitted. As the program of fitting women for other worthwhile careers had not been sufficiently developed to point the way, she remained in fact what she undoubtedly was in spirit, a lonely person, with no interest strong enough to give her the deepest personal satisfaction. In spite of this she had many worthwhile friends and sincere admirers. She was devoted to her brothers and sister, nieces and nephews, and possessed a generous and unselfish spirit. With so many excellent qualities of mind and heart, generous and unselfish acts to enrich her memory, who can say but that when the final story of her life is revealed on the other side, it will be discovered that in her achievements she was not one whit behind any of the others, for without her, they probably would never have been able to do what they did. So far as the story of the farm is concerned, the next one to be mentioned in this narrative might well have been put at the beginning, for Clayton is the son who refused to leave the farm, even after it would seem that all the bridges h-ad been burned behind him to prevent his return. He was sent to college by his mother’s insistence, that he might be fitted for a different career. He was even induced to go to New York, where he lived six months with the MacKenzies, to begin his career as a real estate salesman. But the call of the farm was stronger than any call which he ever received, and after a year, even though his New York venture was proving a success, he returned to make farming his life’s work. And here again we can see the working of God’s providence, for if one of the family was destined to run the farm and to run it the way the family hoped for, that person was Clayton. 30
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